Sheryl Sandberg offloads $41.5m in Facebook shares in just 6 weeks

Facebook's Chief Operating Officer has divested herself of MORE Facebook shares, ditching just under a million on Friday and netting a cool $26.2m. A little something for Christmas, perhaps?

It bumps up the total cash haul Sandberg has made from Facebook shares to $41.5m. That's all since the end of October when the directors' share lockup expired and she was allowed to start selling them.

Chief Ops bod Sandberg sold 946,588 shares at prices between $27.30 to $27.90 on 5 December as detailed by a filing with the SEC. This would have brought in approximately $26.2m - the biggest value single sell-off that the Chief Operating Officer has made yet. Venturebeat says that the share sell-off was automatically triggered by the stock price hitting a certain level - which suggests it wasn't a sign of anything portentous about the strength of the company or future direction of stock prices.

Sandberg still holds 18.7 million shares in Facebook.

Previous to the multimillion scoop on Friday, Sandberg sold 176,452 shares on 19 November at $23.95 each - netting $4.2m.

And on 6 November, just after the directors' shares lock-up period expired, Sandberg sold 176,452 shares at an average of $21.24 each, bringing in $3.7m.

Zuckerberg has remained resolute that he won't be selling any shares. Some senior investors such as Peter Thiel have also heavily cashed out of Facebook. The share price is currently $27.84 - down from a high of $45 earlier this year. ®